BTC Sessions - Saylor’s Epic $42BN Move: Has Bitcoin Just Entered A New Era? ep448

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

🔴 LIVE: Saylor’s $42BN Equity Offering, Trump’s 0% Crypto Tax, & Bezos Admits Failure! With Bitcoin reaching new all-time highs, we’ve got some explosive updates to share. Join us on today’s Simply Sessions as we dive into: • Saylor’s Game-Changing $42 Billion Move: Michael Saylor just announced MicroStrategy’s historic $42B ATM equity offering. We’ll explore the potential market-shifting impact of this decision, including how it could set a new Bitcoin price floor just under $100k. Could this be the end of bear markets and the beginning of six-figure Bitcoin for good? • Trump’s Pro-Bitcoin Tax Plan: As Trump hints at 0% crypto taxes, Bitcoiners are watching closely. Could the U.S. become a crypto-friendly haven under his leadership? • Bitcoin’s Rapid Overton Window Shift: Bitcoin adoption is accelerating faster than ever, pushing what was once unthinkable into reality. We’ll discuss the monumental changes in Bitcoin’s mainstream perception and why now is a time to zoom out and celebrate the gains. • Jeff Bezos Admits Media Trust Issues: In the wake of Trump’s appearance on Joe Rogan, Jeff Bezos acknowledges the growing public distrust in mainstream media. Is the information landscape shifting? • In other news: Strike’s Jack Mallers explains why Bitcoin represents truth in currency, and we introduce the Bitcoin Popularity Index (BPI), a fresh measure of global Bitcoin interest. Don’t miss this packed episode—subscribe, hit the bell, and join us live to stay ahead of the curve in Bitcoin news! BOOK private one-on-one sessions with BITCOIN MENTOR! Learn self custody, hardware, multisig, lightning, privacy, running a node, and plenty more - all from a team of top notch educators that I've personally vetted. https://bitcoinmentor.io/ JOIN OUR AFFILIATE PROGRAM, EARN BITCOIN FOR REFERRALS! https://bitcoinmentor.io/affiliate-registration/ —------------------------------ FOLLOW Simply Bitcoin & BTC Sessions on other channels: Simply Bitcoin on Youtube: youtube.com/@simplybitcoin Simply Bitcoin on X: x.com/simplybitcointv Nico on X: x.com/bitvolt BTC Sessions on X: x.com/BTCsessions —------------------------------ 💪 SUPPORT THE SHOW: BITCOIN WELL My favorite self custody bitcoin platform in Canada and USA! They offer KYC free accounts, 1% spread, no on-chain fees and tons of other incredible features. Check them out at bitcoinwell.com/btcsessions https://bitcoinwell.com/btcsessions COINKITE offers the BEST Bitcoin hardware on the market. Use this link to get 5% off anything in their store: https://store.coinkite.com/promo/BTCSessions HODLHODL is a NON-CUSTODIAL, ANONYMOUS solution to stack sats peer to peer! Buy and sell Bitcoin while maintaining privacy. Sign up and try it out today! https://hodlhodl.com/join/BTCSESSION Speedwallet - your one wallet to send, receive, shop & earn. Simple, fast and convenient! Download now, use code this link & get 5,000 SATs on your first transaction. https://www.speed.app/sweepstakes-promocode-btc/ Bitcoin Keeper - No account creation required, use your own node, create multisig wallets, use inheritance document templates for smooth inheritance planning.Use the code BTCSESSIONS30 to avail a 30% discount on your first subscription. Learn More: https://bitcoinkeeper.app/ DEBIFI is a non-custodial Bitcoin backed lending platform with institutional grade liquidity providers and no rehypothecation of your funds. Find them at: https://debifi.com/ #bitcoin #btc #finance #money #crypto

going on everybody welcome to the show another Thursday another episode of simply sessions i am back home from the last trip of the year i just returned from plan b forum in lugano switzerland which was an awesome time of course i got to see nico there we were hanging out we were taking turns uh moderating and and and hosting and emceeing and doing all those fun things that you get to do and uh and yeah it was a blast but But we're both back home now. And so, yeah, he's waiting on the wings, ready to bring you the latest and greatest. So, of course, this is live indeed this week. So anything can happen.

I defer to my friend Bill here. We'll do it live. Do it live. I'll write it and we'll do it live. The thing sucks. If you have not already, please do like, subscribe, share, all those things that help a ton getting this content in front of more eyeballs. I am Ben with the BTC sessions. This is your Simply session.

Before we bring in Nika, let's take a look at where we are on the market at the moment. This is timechain calendar.com. We are sitting at $70,322 dollars per coin. Nice. We've obviously seen it go up a little bit higher. We were up and above 73 earlier in the week. In Canada, we, for the first time, ever, officially hit 100,000 Canadian moose shekels.

It was a sight to behold. Timbitts were raining from the sky. Justin Trudeau cried rivers of maple syrup and Canadians around the globe rejoiced. And the only reason we hit that is because the Canadian dollar has devalued quicker against the U.S. dollar. So here we are. Anyways, in terms of fees, low, low. two sats per byte next block and in terms of bitcoin mine 19.77 million of them that is 94.17 percent of the total supply we're going to give a quick shout out to our sponsors of the show and we'll

be right back to get things rolling with the news. Bitcoin well is on a mission to enable independence by being one of the easiest and quickest ways to purchase Bitcoin in Canada and the US. The best part about it, every buy goes directly into your own self-custody. They never hold your coins. You can add a Bitcoin address as part of onboarding. There's a transparent 1% spread, no hidden fees, no withdrawal fees, plus they have KYC free sales and bill payments on their website. They're also a publicly traded company under the ticker BTCW on the TSXV. Check them out over at Bitcoinwell.com. Check out my full tutorial on how to use them. And you can check out the links in the show notes down below and sign up today. Speed is one of the fastest growing

Lightning Wallets out there. It is a fast and secure way to send and receive Bitcoin and Stablecoin payments instantly. You can even swap between Bitcoin and Stablecoins directly in the app. Also in the app, you can buy gift cards for all the best brands and earn rewards in the process. To download speed, simply scan the QR code on the screen, click the links in the show notes down below, and use code BTC Sessions 10 to get 5,000 sats for free. All right, we are back. It is time to bring in our host with the most. There he is.

Yo, buddy, how's it going? Yo! Dude, we just saw each other in Switzerland. I know. We vacation a lot, bro. We go to all these very, like, what was it, Portugal, Las Vegas, Switzerland. Sometimes our wives are even there. Sometimes.

Sometimes. Sometimes. It's not fun when they're there. Yeah. Let's, we're just going to watch this later. That was a joke, Lisa. It was a joke. We can't have fun without our wives.

That's impossible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, this is, this is it for me. Are you traveling more this year? Are you done? I have El Salvador.

And then I'm done. And I'm still debating whether I'm going to make the track up there for December. Ben's been pitching me on how cold Canada is. And I don't, I don't even, I can't even have. He's like, if you breathe, your breaths like, like freezes. And I'm like, no way, that's impossible. That doesn't happen. Yeah.

If you have a boiling bucket of water and you throw it into the air, it instantly vaporizes and turns to snow. If it's cold. See, I got to go. I have to check this out for myself, you know. I feel like this is the opposite reason of why somebody would. This is what happens when you grow up in Florida. Yeah, yeah. It's morbid curiosity, I suppose.

Oh, man. Oh, sweet. Well, let's dive in. I'll bring up your stuff here. But yeah, man, what's been going on? What's exciting this week? Yeah, so first off, it's Bitcoin White Paper Day. So that's really exciting. This was officially when the white paper was released back in 2008. Because it is White Paper Day, I do want to read this white paper because, you know, it's very special. Happy birthday. Or happy white paper day. Yeah, I guess it's self-explanatory. Anyways, a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures provides part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double spending. We propose a solution to the double spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. The network timestamps transactions by hashing them onto an ongoing chain of hash-based proof of work, forming a record that cannot be changed

without redoing the proof of work. The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witness, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU power. As long as a majority of CPU power is controlled by nodes that are not cooperating to attack the network, they'll generate the longest chain and outpace attackers. The network itself requires minimum structure.

Messages are broadcast on best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the longest proof of work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone. Beautiful. Beautifully said. Brinks tears to the eyes. It really does. And a couple of things, too, it's interesting.

The majority of CPU power, we passed CPUs a long time ago. Now it's A6. Now, what's really interesting, and I got to zoom in on this, is that happened many, many years ago, 16 years ago. Fast forward 16 years later, you have potential. Well, no, Tuesday, the potentially a future president of the United States wishing Bitcoin happy birthday or happy Bitcoin white paper. Anyway, you guys get it. Here's the Trump. I'm going to try to do it in his accent. Bitcoin is so big. It's amazing. It's the longest chain. Proof of work only. I would like to wish our great Bitcoiners a happy 6.16th anniversary of Satoshi's white paper. We will build the wall. We will end Kamala's. war on crypto, and Bitcoin will be made in the USA. Vote Trump, hashtag Bitcoin, hashtag Free Ross Day One.

I think that was, I mean, if I was on the Academy, I would give you an Oscar. Is that what it is? Wait, no, Academy Award. I don't know what the hell is. Is it? I think it might be. I don't know. Either way, whatever award it would be, you get it.

Anyways, dude, this is, this is a, thank you, bro. I appreciate it. Like, let me hold it. I would like to thank my parents and, and, yeah. I've never,

is it, maybe is it Sally? I don't know. It might be. He's a chicken. There you go. Okay. So,

yeah, I mean, this is crazy, right? 16 years after this was written, you have potentially a future U.S. president, you know,

really talking good about Bitcoin. So, Find that interesting. In other hand, another and other news, we we talk a lot about the term Overton window and I want to talk about that today. It's kind of think like a overall theme of today's show. Here is Howard Lubnik. Howard Lupnik is the CEO and chairman of Counter Fitzgerald.

Counter Fitzgerald is doing a lot of the treasury management for Tether and And Counter Fitzgerald also, he actually took the trek down to El Salvador. And he was just on Anthony Pompliano's podcast. And on Anthony Pompeiano's podcast, he literally told the world that he is looking to put millions, if not billions of dollars, hundreds of billions, or, yeah, hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars into Bitcoin. And this is one of the things that he said at a Trump rally that was hosted in Madison Square Garden. Let's check out what he has to say.

And again, I think the key here is the term Overton window. And that Overton window is shifting. Actually, I'm going to quote Elon here. It's not just opening the Overton window, knock down the whole damn wall. And that's exactly what's been happening. when you get stuff like that, this dropped. Let's check it out. When was America great? At the turn of the century, our economy was rocking.

This is 19, 125 years ago. We had no income tax. And all we had was tariffs. All we had was tariffs. And we had was tariffs. so much money that we had the greatest businessmen of America get together to try to figure out how to spend it. That's who we were then. But then we had World War I and we had World War II.

And we felt we had a duty to rebuild the rest of the world. So here's what we did. We took down our protection. We took down our tariffs, and we turned instead and we taxed Americans so that we could export the power of our economy and save the rest of the world, which we did. Now let me ask you a question. What decade should that have ended? Should it have ended in the 80s? The 90s, 2000? What in the world are we doing? We're letting the rest of the world eat our lunch.

And it is time to make America great again. Okay. So, first of all, all of Ben's audience isn't American. But the reason that this is significant is if the United States, drops the federal income tax. Other countries are going to have no choice but to follow suit. That's the first thing. The second thing is in regards to dropping this idea into the consciousness of people

that a country can function without an income tax. And back when the United States didn't have an income tax, it was established coincidentally, right? It was a very big coincidence. It was established the same year than the Federal Reserve, which is the American Central Bank in 1913. So now you have, this isn't a third party candidate. Now you have a main party candidate that, according to the betting odds,

it looks like he's going to win. according to the betting odds. And he is opening, he's opening up the consciousness of people to the idea that your life can function, the government can function without an income tax. I live in the state of Florida. Florida doesn't have an income tax. California, New York, they have income taxes.

If you look at which state, the cost of living is cheaper and which state is easier to do business, in which state people would prefer to live, it would be Florida. And Texas also doesn't have an income tax as well. But again, if you spent your entire life in the Fiat matrix, the very idea of just being able to live, like, what do you mean? Are you trying to tell me that, like, I might not have to pay tax in the future? That's exactly what I'm telling you.

And I'm telling you that also, once they open this idea up to the populace, that, you know, income tax, the world isn't going to spontaneously combust if income tax isn't the thing. I think that's a one-way street. I don't think you can come. I don't think you're going to be able to convince people the way that you've been able to convince people pre-internet of certain ideas that might not exactly very popular.

By the way, it doesn't end. It doesn't just end there. And this is actually something that we've brought up before in the past. Here's Michael Saylor quoting Donald Trump. And he says, quote, they have them paying tax on crypto, and I don't think that's right. Bitcoin is money and you have to pay capital gains tax if you use it to buy a coffee. I was talking with a friend and he said it really shouldn't be taxed and I agree.

So think about that for a second because they move the goalposts on this a lot. And the goalposts move like this. When it comes to KYC and AML, Bitcoin is money. when it comes to tax purposes and legal tender, Bitcoin is not money. That's not the way it works. You don't get to move the goalpost here and pick and choose when it's convenient from a regulatory perspective for Bitcoin to be money and for Bitcoin not to be money. It either is money or it isn't money.

It can't be one and the other based on what's convenient to you, Mr. Regulators. Right? So again, talking about the Overton window. this is a huge, a massive, huge, massive shift in the Overton window. And if Trump wins, even if these laws, I'm not so sure about. The Ross thing I'm more sold on. These things I'm not so sure about. However, even if he wins and he doesn't manage to get this past,

the cat is out of the back. The genie is out of the bottle. And I don't think it could be put back in. and I think it's a one, we're going to be heading in this direction. It's the sovereign individual thesis, bro. Anyways, what are your thoughts, Ben? Yeah, it's, there's a lot of stuff that is now being entertained and spoken about that one election prior, I, you would have never seen other than like a third party candidate, right?

Like, we had the whole Ron Paul thing back in the day and the Fed, all of that. But that was largely ignored, right? He was seen as just like some kook and he wanted he wanted to end income tax and everything like that. But it was never, you know, it was it was never in our lifetimes a serious thing. And so to see the topic, the topics of actually ending the Fed, because that's been discussed a little bit here, right? You've got his running mate talking out. You've got Trump's running made, J.D. Vance talking about that, saying that, that, um, You know, he questioning should the Federal Reserve be around and talking about Ron Paul and everything like that.

You've got this questioning of income tax and is it viable. You've got all of these things that wouldn't have been put in, it just wasn't in the vernacular of somebody that was seriously running for office. And now it is. And obviously, you don't have the same rhetoric coming out of the opposite. side of the aisle. But when I think that now it's part of the conversation, it, it becomes tougher when one side is saying, you know what? Income tax maybe not necessary. If the other side says anything to the tune of, no, no, no, we want to make sure that we get your income tax from everybody. Like that doesn't get votes, right? Like one says, you know what, we should stop stealing

from people and the other one says, well, it's kind of necessary to steal from you guys. Like, it's a hard sell. And so I think, again, like that Overton window shift, you're right. New ideas, not new ideas, but ideas that have really deserved to be in front of people's eyes and ears are finally there. And some people aren't afraid to have those conversations. Now, it's anybody's guess as to what's going to happen in November. Obviously, there's the betting odds and everything like that. I have no idea. But at the end of the day, these conversations are being brought to light.

And I'm all for it. You know, like, it's never a bad thing to have more people questioning, why do we need income tax? We were doing great back then. Exactly. Exactly. And, yeah, it's exciting times, man. It's exciting time.

Could you imagine, Ben, like, And again, I'm, I'm speculating here and maybe I'm dreaming. But could you imagine if like, especially in our countries, because there's always like Dubai and like all these smaller countries that like have no income tax. But could you imagine like a big one of these big countries with no income tax? And then could you imagine looking back and you're like, wait, why was I paying it the entire time? What the ff was that for? like because they they essentially sci opt-ups into thinking this because if you take a look at like the history of income tax in a lot of these countries like specific in the u.s first they promised the

public that it was we've heard this before only for the rich right and the first level of income tax was actually 3% and it was only for the very wealthy yeah like the top top and the top like 1% or like the 1% of the 1% exactly and then after and it was even a it was a small percentage of the top tax bracket and then within a decade or two coincidentally all these are coincidences all these countries started getting into wars and then all of a sudden those tax rates went all the way up in the u.s it actually peaked at 90% during the 1940s 90% could you imagine that i'd do anything at that point like it's literally like why lift a finger to create anything exactly

it's so it's so insane it's so insane anyways exciting times yeah uh moving on to the next story so uh micro strategy uh plans to uh they announce another 42 billion dollar bitcoin investment plan another one this is new this just happened uh you know a cool 42 billion dollars to toss down here and there i actually said that this morning i was like i was like dude i got a bit, I got a little bit jealous. I was like, dude, like, I wish I had a giant public company that I could leverage just to continue buying tens of thousands of Bitcoin. It was like very little risk. Like, oh, like, yeah, if you want to cash this in, like, you can, you can get company stock or whatever. Like, if you want to. So crazy. So crazy. Um, okay. So micro strategy reveals

plans to raise 42 billion in fresh capital for Bitcoin purchases over the next three years. According to its Q3 2024 earnings release on October 30th, 2024, the company holds 250, 250,000 220 Bitcoins as of September 30th, 2024. Making it the largest publicly traded company, Bitcoin holder worldwide, according to CoinGecko data. The new capital-raising initiative called the 2021 plan aims to secure 2040,000, $21 billion through equity offerings and another $21 billion via fixed income securities between 2025 and 27.

Our focus remains to increase value generated to our shareholders by leveraging the digital transformation of capital. Today we're announcing a strategic goal of raising $42 billion of capital over the next three years, comprised of $21 billion of equity and $21 billion of fixed income securities. The 2121 plan of Microstrategy targets $42 billion in fresh capital for 2025-2020. The plan splits evenly between two sources, $21 billion from new stock offerings, and $21 billion through fixed income securities. Quote, we are basically creating leverage by tapping into the convertible bond market. Quote, over time, we'll explore the fixed income market and we'll look at issuing preferred shares,

things that are, in essence, a swap. Goes on to say the capital raising schedule shows a steady increase. Now, here's the thing, though, and I think this is the part that's fascinating. BTC therapist pointed it out. If Microstrategy is primed to buy $42 billion of Bitcoin over the next three years, we may not see a traditional bear market. We might just dip, grind higher, and consolidate. This could be the cycle that breaks everything.

Sell your bitcoins at your own risk. Here's British Hottle and he says, Micro Strategy will not only temper the next Bitcoin bear market, but with 40 to 50 million daily purchasing, we've just set a floor price of $89,000 for every 450 Bitcoin mine daily from one buyer. And that's something to keep in mind, right? So if you divide 70,000 by 40 million,

it comes to roughly between 4 to 500, $400, $4 to $600, that is more than the daily block subsidy. And a lot of the cell pressure actually comes from miners having to sell some of that subsidy. So think about it, $450 Bitcoin mine daily. You can say that that's a lot of sell pressure. Michael Saylor would be essentially be buying all that cell pressure up, just one entity alone. That is insane, dude. That is crazy.

Here's David Bailey. He says basically Sailor buying 40 million of day in Bitcoin every day for the next three years up forever. Right. And this one specifically, this quote was actually quote tweeted by Max Kaiser, which is how I found it. So yeah, I mean, dude, this is gnarly. This is nuts. And if you take a look at his stock right now, which I'll pull up. Um, he's like, bro, I don't even know what to say.

It's like, it's like literally mooting. Um, yeah. And like he's like he's fucking crushing it. Like I don't know, I don't know how else to say this bro. Like check this out. So, uh, like, you know, when he first started buying Bitcoin, it was at $14. Now it's at $244. Yeah.

The last time his stock reached these heights was during the dot-com. Yeah. Bust or boom. And I think he's about to overtake it. Talk about how long is that a 24-year vindication? Holy cow, man. This is like the Count of Monte Cristo. The Count of Sailor Christo coming.

You know, good for him. When Sailor said it's going up forever, Laura, he didn't just banked. on that happening, he decided I'm going to make it happen single-handed. He's like, you know what? I'm going to make it go up forever. He found the glitch and he just buy it all, buy it all forever. And he found a way to just get infinite money and continue buying Bitcoin. So quite literally, he can make it go up forever. And the other thing is, is that He's taken on the task of educating other companies on how to do so as well and kind of has laid out the strategy that they've taken. And people are taking note and beginning to follow suit.

So imagine moving forward multiple other sailor protégés doing the same and some with much larger balance. sheets than Microstrategy. That's going to be insane because that is going to happen at some point. And you said, you know, Microstrategia, the largest public company Bitcoin, Bitcoin balance sheet out there. I mean, I think that barring some other large company getting in like right now and just trying to accumulate more Bitcoin than Sailor. he will just end up being the largest company,

like if it continues the way it's going. 100%. I think he knows that. I think he knows that. He owns 1% of the supply. I think he wants more. You know, it's he's positioning himself very advantageously. And he's out for blood right now.

He wants all that Bitcoin and it's just absolutely crazy. Two quick things I want to say. Number one is basically Sailor drops this news, which effectively for existing shareholders means he's going to dilute their shares, but buy more Bitcoin with it. And despite the dilution, he basically, like, while everything else is dumping, the price today was just kind of flat. And then meanwhile, Coinbase is like, hey, we're going to do share buybacks, and they dumped, which is pretty funny.

But Benny in the chat said more people need to talk about how Coinbase holds it all for micro strategy. I thought he was with Fidelity. No, but he's with Coinbase. Is he? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is super.

I recognize that companies need to handle things a little bit differently. But, like, again, I do worry that one of these days something happens with Coinbase. point base and it just shits the bed and and like I mean it would be the ultimate lesson on self custody for everybody um but it's it's also yeah I mean like who knows what would what would uh how that would play out but regardless yeah like for a company there's certain regulations that you need to abide by it for an individual absolutely like self custody is the gold standard um yeah so that's all I'll say there speaking of of coin of of Coinbase and Micro Strategy. Microstrategy actually overtook Coinbase. Coinbase has a $44 billion market cap. Microstrategy has a $49 billion market cap.

And this is the hilarious thing because Coinbase literally had a decade long head start. All they had to do was just stack sats quietly on the side and they fucking blew it. And Sailor comes along in 21 or in 20 and just begins to like, you know, he's creating value with his existing company, which is profitable, and he just begins, like, saving in Bitcoin. And he surpasses somebody, a company that was around in 2013 in a few years. And just by simply staying humble and stacking sats, he surpasses them. Brian Armstrong shit the bed epically when a company can just stay humble and stack sats. and outpace your degenerate fucking shit coining that you've been doing for a decade plus. Dude, wrecked, bro.

Could you imagine? Yeah. And I think Coinbase only holds like four or five thousand Bitcoin. Like, and again, this is a company that like, this is 2013, bro. You know, they could. Brian Armstrong, you should be embarrassed. What? Like, he still doesn't.

And he's still like, I'm going to buy back. stock instead of I'm going to stack sats. He's playing Fiat games, bro. He's playing Fiat games in a Bitcoin world. Anyways. So in other news, Ben, this is a theme that we talk about a lot all the time. I call it the Great Disintermediation. And I told you, is it first it's going to be with information and this be with money.

So what's happening? Essentially, the internet has changed everything. You have mass scale peer-to-peer communications. This is what social media is. And people like Ben and I, independent content creators, now we are becoming mainstream media. Mainstream media is dying. It's going away.

And what's replacing it is independent content creators on the internet. And it's really, really exciting times. And I think we crossed the Rubicon when Joe Rogan had the guy that we were talking about in the very beginning of the show, Donald Trump and his podcast, and it's really interesting because YouTube actually censored it. So there was a point in time, not anymore because enough people complained, but essentially if you searched it in the results, it wouldn't pop up. So you couldn't find it. And I confirmed this, by the way, while it was happening. And you couldn't find it. and this is like one of the most watched interviews.

And from a historical perspective, this is the way that media should be. Because if you have a, if you're sitting across someone and you have a unfiltered, no structure, just a free form long format conversation, you know, you can't do the talking points, you can't selectively edit it, you know. I think that this is where the future of media is going. I obviously am a little bit biased as an independent content creator. And I think the world's going to be a much better place for it. And keep in mind with those numbers of 40 million, or I think it was like 10 million in

the first like couple hours or so, that blows legacy media out of the water. They don't even come close to those numbers just to kind of give you guys an idea. very, very exciting times. And here's actually Elon talking about this. And I'll play you guys a clip. I mean, I do think like that old school journalism, I call it legacy media because it is kind of legacy media. Because it is from a time when in order to learn any news, you had to aggregate the news to some central publication. And then some editor would decide what people should hear. And then they'll print the newspaper. with a lot of paper, literally, and then distribute that paper,

and that's how you learn things. But you obviously don't need that anymore. You've got the internet, so anyone can learn anything at any time. Yeah, that's why X is the future. It's citizen journalism, where you hear from the people, it's by the people for the people, that's what it's all about. I think this is a super big deal, and it's absolutely fundamental and transformative,

that the people actually get to decide the news and the narrative and what matters. And that the legacy media is basically controlled by a handful of editors in chief. That's it. They decide what's going to get published. That's why I really encourage everyone out there to write stuff on the X platform, and other platforms too.

But citizen journalism is the future. I mean, I completely. completely agree and i think this is something that you know ben and men like we've been talking about this and we've experienced this right um you know i'm sure that when you started your channel or when i started my channel i have no idea i can make this like what like i can make a living what are you talking about this is impossible um or um or you know the potential reach right um that eventually and then like before you know it you're like because okay okay okay, there is no MSNBC for Bitcoin, right?

There is no tutorial. Who else would you go to? But if not then. But this is what I'm trying to say is that, like, you are the mainstream media now and on. Like, you are the source of truth. You are the information source. And, you know, I think the world's going to be a much better place for it.

I think legacy media, they, we entrusted them with a lot and they continuously broke that trust. To the point where Jeff Bezos, Jeff Bezos owns a very famous publication, which ironically has the slogan, Democracy Dies in Darkness, the Washington Post. And he wrote an op-ed, I really recommend reading it, by the way. He said, the hard truth. Americans don't trust the news. a note from our own owner. Obviously, the owner is Jeff Bezos.

I read the entire thing. It was basically saying, like, guys, like, everyone's telling us that we've been lying and people don't trust us. Like, they're kind of right. We should stop lying. Where I think Jeff gets it wrong is he still, he's like, it shouldn't be podcasts where people get the news. It shouldn't be social media.

It should be these traditional outlets. I fundamentally, I know I'm biased, but maybe Ben, you have a different outlook. I fundamentally disagree. I don't think they cannot be biased. I think they will inherently be biased because that's a lot of power in a handful of editors. That's a lot of power in a handful of editors, which can be co-opted and pressured by governments, or you decentralize that power in the hands of the people where anybody could become a citizen, journalists and if one and if someone accumulates enough power and they start using that platform to

lie within 30 seconds they'll ruin the reputation which took them years to build and people will just go to the next guy it takes 30 seconds to ruin your reputation in this age so um really really exciting times ben you know but what are your thoughts man yeah i mean absolute power corrupts Absolutely. And so when all of these entities were able to basically be the only ones capable and having the tools to disseminate information to the entire populace of a country, then maybe it started from a good place. I'm sure it did. Most people don't set out from the get-go to be malicious. But over time, incentives do their thing. And when you're the only one that is capable of doing that, then of course, either incentives lead you down a dark path.

You want to enrich yourself and you have certain interests and, you know, rather than being, you know, even, you know, looking at both sides of the spectrum, you're, you're more likely to spin things away that you like it. or again as you as you mentioned people can be coerced and and there's a lot of power in legacy media or there was and so that was utilized and even with i know elon's talking about free speech and citizen journalism and luckily there's it's it's much more free on x than it was before he got there but it's still a central entity where at the end of the day, Elon has incentives as well. He's also somebody who could potentially be coerced. And the only solution to that is taking out any central authority.

And so, again, that's why I'm bullish on Nostr. That's why this is streaming to Nostr. That's why I try to, you know, post more on, on, again, a protocol. that can't be stopped as opposed to strictly relying on centralized platforms. You still, again, you and I are trying to reach people that maybe haven't yet been orange pill that maybe don't understand some of the value of these things. So you've got to meet the people where they are and then hopefully lead them down the same path that you've gone down. But I sincerely hope and what I want to try and encourage is people to go down that path

and recognize like, hey, if you're not getting censored now, you're going to at some point. So join us over here where it gets weird. 100%. 100%. And I would say that what Elon said, it doesn't really contradict what we're saying. I would say that what you said is actually a step ahead of Elon and saying like, Elon, you're right. You know, like it's citizen journalism with the platforms. but the platforms are still prone.

Like, it's like the, um, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

the, the, the Bitcoin one is like, can't censor me or can't tread on me. Like, with, uh, with,

uh, with, uh, with X, it's like, we won't censor. With Noster, it's like,

we can't censor. Right? So which one is superior? It's obviously, we can't. but anyways that sounded a lot better in my head anyways guys this was your simply sessions for october 31st 2024 i'll see you later ben peace oh yeah have a good one man awesome and uh everybody stick around because in a moment uh we're going to do a couple things uh and i'll i'll bring up my

screen here uh but we're we're going to give a quick shout out of course to our sponsors but as soon as we get back, we're going to be given away some sats over here on Bitcoin well. So get your lightning wallets ready because whoever is quickest on the draw is going to get the free sats. And I've also got another way for you to earn some free sats as Bitcoin continues its war path to new all-time highs. But I digress. Let's give a quick shout out to our sponsors. We will be right back. Get those lightning wallets ready. CoinKite.com has some of the best hardware on the market today to secure your Bitcoin. The cold card queue is an absolute powerhouse and is my daily driver.

On top of this, they have plenty of other goodies including the Mark 4, the tap signer, open dimes, the block clock, and much more. If you head over to their website, make sure you use code BTC sessions at checkout to get a nice discount. Links are in the show notes down below. Keeper is a fully open source Bitcoin app, created to help you stack SATs long term. Easily use your hardware devices or assisted keys to create multi-sig wallets and plan your inheritance.

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It's time to give away some stats before we dive into the tech updates. I hope you have your lightning wallets ready to scan. So I'm over here on Bitcoinwell.com. Of course, they are in Canada and the, you know, US, a great place to be stacking sats. And the way it works is when you sign up, when you buy Bitcoin, when you refer friends, you earn points. And you can use these points to then toss a coin into the Bitcoin wishing well and win anywhere

from 500 up to a million sats. So with that, we're going to play right now. So we're going to toss a coin in the well. And whoever scans first is going to be awarded. with 500 sats. So again, you can scan that with any lightning wallet, and it is an LN URL withdrawal link, which will ask you if you'd like to redeem those 500 sats.

So congrats to whoever gets those free sats. And if you do, let me know in the chat, in the comments, wherever you're watching this. And then that's not the only way you can be earning Bitcoin here. Some of you will be familiar with the fact that I have, I have co-founded a company called Bitcoin Mentor, we have aggregated a ton of incredible educators. And what we do is we help people one-on-one

learn how to obtain, secure, use Bitcoin in many different ways. Wallets, hardware, multi-sig, running a node, all of that, we can walk people through it. Now, where do you come in? If you're watching this, you may already be familiar with some of those stuff, but if you're not, feel free to reach out. However, it's the Bitcoin bull run. I'm going to confidently say that at this point.

There's going to be a lot of people coming up to you asking questions, especially if your friends of family already know you're the Bitcoin guy or girl in the group of friends. And so where do you point them to? Where do you get them to learn? Well, you can send them over to Bitcoin Mentor. And what you can do is you can scan the QR code on the screen and you can sign up as an affiliate. And as an affiliate, you'll have a special link. You can share that with anybody.

And every time somebody books a session, not just the first time, but every session that they book with us, you will earn $21 and you get paid out in Bitcoin at the end of the month. I can't think of a better way to earn sats in perpetuity moving forward than to level somebody up and teach them proper best practices when it comes to Bitcoin. So please do, scan the QR code, sign up to become a Bitcoin mentor affiliate. and enjoy stacking sats, while other people stack skills when it comes to Bitcoin. Anyways, enough of my ranting there.

I'll show the QR code again at the end of the episode, but again, I encourage you to join the mentor team and become a mentor affiliate. So let's get into the tech updates. This is a big one. I'm very excited for this. BTC Pay Server, version 2.0, our biggest update yet. This is from the BTC Pay server blog.

We are thrilled to announce the release of BTC Pay Server 2.0 our most significant update since the project began in 2017. This version is packed with new features, bug fixes, and crucial backend updates designed to set a solid foundation for the future and make BTC pay more powerful than ever before. Some of the key features, new interface localizations, sidebar-only navigation, new onboarding flow for new users and point-of-sale. Three new e-commerce integrations, which include Wix, Odu, and Big Commerce, which is great for me.

My website is Wix, and so that's fantastic. I'm going to be covering that. Check out version 2 default and branding enhancements. So you should know that right now there are a couple things that need to be updated, one of them being strike integration, things like that. So just so you know, there's a couple things that with the initial rollout are not going to function for a short period of time. So if you're already using BTZ pay with a few of those, check the blog post, make sure that everything's going to be working perfectly for you to update. If not, then just wait for a little bit of time until those things are functioning perfectly. Okay, it gives a little bit of talk about how to update and everything like that.

But yeah, it has a ton of information on all of these different things that are coming out. And what this means particularly for me is I've been actually, I knew this update was coming at some point. So I've been kind of waiting on the sidelines before I do an updated BTC pay tutorial. And so what my plans are, cover the new BTC pay update, how to run it yourself, how to host it, all that. then I want to cover the Bitcoin-I's machine. So those are the little point-of-sale terminals that you can use and link to your own BTC pay to accept payments directly at an event or, you know, in a market or whatever. And then also I want to cover the bolt cards.

So these are tap-to-pay cards that can be linked to your own wallet. And you can create those using the Bitcoin-Ey's terminals, the point-of-sale terminals. So I've got like a three-part series that I'm planning in and around this. And now this was the last piece of the puzzle that I was waiting for before I could dive in. Damn, I'm excited. And now I'm home. I'm going to be home for like four months, five months. And now I can like focus on doing stuff like this.

And it just brings a big smile to my face. So I can't wait. Anyways, let's keep moving here. OpenSats. Issues, eighth wave of Bitcoin, grants. I want to give a congratulations to Citadel Tech, Lampo, Cashew Nutshell, Pickhart, Payments, plugin. They have given out stats to all of these projects, and I love to see OpenSats continue to give out these grants. Also, I'm not sure how to say, unfortunately not sure how to say the name of this app, Yaki Home, I think, version 2.0.

Anyways, so this is a Noster Web and mobile client for exploring NosterShiref, short form and long form content. I actually got to meet the creator of it and and hear about what they're working on in Nashville when I was there for the Human Rights Foundation Global Bitcoin Summit. And so I've been looking to kind of play around with some new clients and I'm looking forward to this. So what's new? The lightning wallet, this update brings the ability to easily create a lightning wallet with one's nostril keys to experience zapping. So you, You can do that or you can use NosterWallet Connect and Albi Connect to connect to your own options. Again, Home and Discover sections.

You've got a dashboard allows you to manage all published and drafted content. You've got notifications for various different things. Settings can have been completely revamped for simplicity and now include profile customization options, appearance and relay settings, wallet management, and then enhanced performance re-engineered core offers outbox, model support, so and so on and so forth. Either way, I'm going to be playing around this with this and seeing how I like it on mobile. Albi Go update. So I did a video on Albi Hub, which is effectively running your own Lightning Node, but it walks you through very simply. I did it on my Start 9.

Love it there. It's like I literally, I was in Switzerland. And Lugano has the town itself is like has a ton of Bitcoin adoption. So you can go to, there's three. 300 different brick and mortar merchants that you can walk into and pay with Bitcoin. And I was using my Albi wallet, not my Albi wallet, but my own personal Bitcoin node, my start nine node that's sitting on the shelf behind me here via Albi Hub. And I was paying everybody in Switzerland using that, which was incredible.

What an amazing experience. In fact, one of the Bitcoin Bazaar merchants that was there, I bought some 3D printed stuff. And I paid them. And as I was paying, I was like, oh, this has come from my Start 9 node at home in Canada. And he's like, oh, no way. This is going back to my own node at home in Austria. So from my Canadian node, transaction takes place in Switzerland and then settles on his lightning node in Austria.

How cool is that. Anyways, I digress. Albi Go is Albi's own personal wallet that they've created that you can link to your Albi Hub. So if you're running your own lightning node, it's a simple scan of a QR code, and you can link it as a very simple interface. Anyways, they've got a new version, 1.7.0. So they've added LN URL withdrawal support. So exactly what we just saw here when I gave away some stats from Bitcoin well, exactly that scan withdraw.

Improved currency selection, boostogram info for transaction in transaction detail. So if you're like a podcast or something like that and you're getting good. booster grams, it'll actually show that information in the transaction. And then just various bug fixes and improvements, which is great to see. AlbiGo. Again, I like to use Zeus in that context of linking it to my node, but AlbiGo is a very simple interface. So if you don't want a lot of bells and whistles and you just want to see balance, send, receive, and some basic functionality, I think AlbiGo is a great option there. Moving on, Bitcoin Keeper. So you guys know Keeper. They're awesome. You can manage keys. You can create multi-sig wallets. They have inheritance, all of that.

Anyways, they just overhauled their tap signer experience. So they've added and fine-tuned a whole bunch of stuff. So if you've been using them already for tap signer, which is a great option, let's just chat about what they've done here. So tap signer experience overhauled. You can download encrypted backups of your tap signer. You can change the cards pin. And you can unblock the card. rate limited. So sometimes if you're being finicky or you're not holding it there long enough and you try too many times, it might lock you out temporarily, you can unblock that. Key and signer improvements. So associate contacts with signing keys. You have better options for exporting and securing your keys. In and around wallet data management, you have enhanced

wallet support and export options and improve file sharing across the app. And other enhancements, Electrum server improvements, bug fixes, UI updates, and all of that. And I got to give a shout out to one of the Bitcoin bands, Ben Kaufman. He did say, of course, I read this while I was in Lugano, but chill weekend hacking out a massive update for Bitcoin Keeper while everyone's in Lugano and Atlanta for TabConf. So while I was out there socializing, he was working hard and building things. So, you know, hats off to Keeper, but also the Bigot. coin bends. All right, moving on. Wasabi wallet version 2.3.0. A few improvements here. This release

continues our vision for simplifying the code base in improving resilience of the software while still shipping long-awaited quality of life features. So a complete rewrite of the Tor integration using standard HTTP client, Treasersafe 5 and Cold Card Q support, which is great. The Q support is very welcome. And a beta version of Wasabi's payment in coin join feature. That's interesting. I have not tried that. It also delivers significant user experience enhancements

through more intuitive interface, including better and more consistent amount formatting and so on and so forth. So, yeah, worth an update if you want to check it out. Moving on, this is very interesting. Light Spark introduces Spark, state chain-inspired solution for scaling Bitcoin. So we've seen a lot in and around the scaling space.

So we've, of course, got the Lightning Network. Lots of people using that now. We've also seen things like tangential to Bitcoin. So we've seen Liquid Network and a lot of, you know, like Aqua Wallet using swaps between liquid and lightning. We've seen things like Fetamint, like Cashew, these eCash systems. But now we're starting to see, and I've dealt with state chains before, But this is another approach. We've also seen ARC, I should say, talk about ARC as well.

But this is very interesting. So, quote, Spark is a new payments-focused, high-performance, massively scalable Bitcoin L2. It extends Bitcoin and Lightning and enables non-custodial wallets to send and receive payments in real-time at virtually no cost. It's early days for Spark, but we're confident it's the missing piece for Bitcoin to win at becoming the standard open protocol. for money on the internet. So it says it uses state chain technology for off-chain transfers via private keys. It also employs atomic swaps enabling instant fee-free Bitcoin UTXO transfers. It also supports issuing stable coins, which can transfer via taproot assets, LRC20 and RGB.

Furthermore, this solution is interoperable with lightning, makes it easier to onboard users to non-custodial layers of Bitcoin. And it does say that the protocol is not 100% trustless on day one. So be aware. Now, let's talk a little bit. Now, they are going to have some products like a wallet as a service, stable coin issuance. They're going to have basically like you can get different services to help you along or you can roll it yourself. Key features.

It is, again, not 100% trust. on day one. It's native Bitcoin, full self custody, instant settlement, low fees. Again, native tokens like stable coins. I'm sure people will put shit coins on it too, but that's beside the point. Native lightning interface without needing to run a lightning node, that's the important part. Ability to scale to billions, one of N trust assumptions or minority of N. So that means that as long as there's one honest person or a minority threshold of people that are honest, then you're not at risk. Unconditional unilateral exits.

That's important as well. Capital efficiency, so no pre-funding, liquidity, lockups or anything like that. And exits without the need for a new Bitcoin, exists rather, without the need for a new Bitcoin op code or any Bitcoin changes, although it does improve when they're available. Now, there is one caveat here, Super TestNet said, this looks very cool. Note that as a state chain developer myself,

I don't consider state chains to be L2s in their current state. The operators can collude and stop a user from exiting if they plan it in advance. Contrary to Spark's messaging, this risk persists indefinitely. Okay, so just be aware there's tradeoffs. There's a degree of risk as with a lot of different options. Things like liquid, things like cashew fettiment, there is risk involved. You're trading off functionality for a degree of risk and how you weigh that risk is up to you. Okay.

But again, for spending wallets, things like that, maybe this pertains. Okay. And then I will say bring this up, great to see another state chain. The more, the merrier. Nicholas Gregory has been on the show before. And I covered state genes previously in something called Mercury Wallet. And they've now created Mercury Lair, which is a blinded signing service enabling multi-party computation. State chains, again, it's complicated.

but it is a way of using Bitcoin without clogging up the main blockchain and enables you quicker, more private, and feeless or very cheap transfers, which is really cool. I do want to give a shout out to, it is Bitcoin White Paper Day, as we said, and there is a new Satoshi in town, a new fake toshy in town. Some dude said that he was going to reveal. that he is Satoshi. It's obviously all bullshit, but I want to give a shout to yellow for his excellent meme here. Wait a minute. Is that Craig? So anyway, it's up top. We got Peter Parker Spider-Man without his glasses on, and we've got the new absolute clown that says he's Satoshi. By the way,

he didn't prove it. He just brought up a bunch of easily forgeable screenshots. And when somebody asked him to move the coins, he said, oh, I will in the coming months. And most of the reporters just left. They couldn't even fill all the chairs in the room and there weren't many chairs. So that was a big nothing burger, but I love this. Peter Parker putting on the glasses and it's Greg Wright hiding in a disguise. Excellent, excellent meme. Shout out to yellow. Also, I want to give one shout out to something that I'm very excited about. I got to partake in a documentary. I got interviewed by a Bitcoin shooter who's an excellent filmmaker while I was in Vegas for Tonvae's Unconfiscatable. He's got a documentary coming out called No More

Inflation. You can visit it at no moreinflation.com. It's not out yet, but you can watch the trailer. It's coming around Christmas of 2024. And if you want to support independent filmmakers that are making quality things, especially ones that are Bitcoin filmmakers, you can head there and you can actually pre-order it right now for eight bucks. And I've done so. I want to obviously support And of course, you can pay via lightning, which I did. He's actually got a Zaprite checkout, which is something that I love to use as well. So yeah, no moreinflation.com. Shout out to Bitcoin Shooter and the upcoming project.

Make sure that you check them out and down below. You can find all kinds of fun little interviews. Rockstar Dev is in there. And Graham Hancock. So if you've been watching, if you check out Netflix from time to time, and you've seen, oh, God, I was just watching it. Ancient Apocalypse. So there's two seasons of that, which I've kind of enjoyed.

Graham Hancock is the creator of that, and he's in this documentary, which is really cool. Also, Robert Malone, interesting, and a bunch of other activists and human rights defenders and bitcoiners, so be sure to check it out. No Moreinflation.com. And then finally, tomorrow, ooh, it's going to be a good one. Make sure that you come around for it. We've got on Why Are We Bullish, Eric Kaysen, Maidex, and Dr. Bitcoin. What an epic, Pam.

This is going to be a good one. So make sure that you tune in tomorrow night, 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Ooh, it's going to be a doozy. Every once in a while, there's a panel that comes along and I'm like, oh, my Lord, all of those people in one place. So this is one of those. If you haven't listened to any of these gentlemen speak before, you're going to want to swing by.

So grab a beverage and come. This is going to be a good one. Anyways, guys, with that, I'm going to round out here. I will say, once again, if you want to help people learn and stack skills, stack their Bitcoin skills, and you want to stack sats in the process, I've just put up one more time,

a QR code that can get you the link to create, to become a Bitcoin mentor affiliate. And again, anytime somebody asks and needs some handholding and need some one-on-one help, you can send them our way. We've got an excellent team of educators that can walk them through wallets, self-custody, hardware, multi-sig, running a node, you name it, they can do it. And every time that they book a session, not just the first session, but every session that they book, you earn 20. $31 that is paid out in Bitcoin at the end of the month.

So I can't think of a better way to stack sats. So please do scan the QR code and join the army of Bitcoin mentors around the globe. Let's educate the ever-living hell out of people and make sure that they're using Bitcoin best practices. Anyways, with that, I am out. Have yourselves a wonderful day or evening, wherever you may. maybe, and I'll see you guys next time for your daily session.